Emily Sortor  |  March 5, 2020

Category: Legal News

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Church & Dwight vitaminsA judge has declined to dismiss a class action lawsuit claiming that Church & Dwight falsely advertise their multivitamins as being “complete,” though some allegations were trimmed.

The decision to preserve the multivitamins false ad class action lawsuit was made in New Jersey by U.S. District Judge Brian R. Martinotti.

The judge rejected Church & Dwight’s assertion that the court did not have primary jurisdiction in the matter of the vitamins’ advertising.

Judge Martinotti also rejected the company’s argument that customers should not be allowed to file a class action lawsuit at all because they had not really suffered injury as the result of the company’s advertising.

First tackling the argument that the court did not have primary jurisdiction, the judge challenged the company’s logic that it was the FDA who should make a decision about whether or not the multivitamins were mislabeled.

The company made this argument in an attempt to block the customers’ claim that Church & Dwight’s vitamins were not “complete” as the label touted, because they do not contain three essential nutrients. 

Refuting Church & Dwight’s argument, Judge Martinotti found that there were no pending FDA rulings which could conflict with the court’s jurisdiction.

The judge also noted that the customers’ vitamin content class action lawsuit does not require the FDA to define “complete,” as the term relates to the content of multivitamins, “but rather the Court to determine whether [the company’s] labeling of its Products as ‘complete multivitamins’ was misleading.”

Based on this, the judge determined that the multivitamin content class action lawsuit should not be dismissed under the doctrine of primary jurisdiction, as Church & Dwight had requested.

Judge Martinotti then went on to take issue with the company’s argument that customers had not really been injured by the labeling of the vitamins.

According to the judge, the consumers had sufficiently established that they had been led to purchase the vitamins at least in part because they believed that they contained the “complete” range of essential vitamins, which the vitamins allegedly did not.

However, the judge trimmed the suit somewhat, despite refusing to dismiss the Church & Dwight class action lawsuit in its entirety. The judge determined that the customers could not claim relief from future harm because they would not be misled by the advertising of the multivitamins in the future.

The Church & Dwight false ad class action lawsuit was filed by customers who challenged the advertising of three of Church & Dwight’s multivitamins – Vitafusion Men’s Complete Multivitamins, Vitafusion Women’s Complete Multivitamins, and L’il Critters Multivitamins. According to the customers, these multivitamins are actually worthless because they are not complete as advertised — allegedly, they do not contain thiamin, riboflavin, and vitamin K.

Do you take a multivitamin? How do you choose which one to buy? Tell us about your choices in the comments below.

The customers are represented by Taylor Bartlett of Heninger Garrison Davis LLC.

The Church & Dwight Multivitamin “Complete” Advertising Class Action Lawsuit is Devane v. Church & Dwight Co. Inc., Case No. 3:19-cv-09899, in the U.S. District for the District of New Jersey.

UPDATE: The Church & Dwight Multivitamin investigation is now open! If you’ve purchased L’il Critters Multivitamins or Vitafusion Men’s or Women’s Complete Multivitamins, submit your information here.

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123 thoughts onChurch & Dwight Can’t Escape Multivitamin Class Action

  1. Cindy Lewis says:

    The link just takes you to open cases and there’s no case on there for this one

  2. Shelly carrigan says:

    Me and my husband both take these vitamins and have been for a while now ! I’m scared now please add me to your list

  3. Robert J Goudin says:

    add me please

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